Ben-Gurion handles record 12 million fliers in 2010

12,160,001 passengers passed through on 95,170 int'l, domestic flights; Israeli airlines carried 43% of passengers, with El-Al in the lead.

By RON FRIEDMAN
311_el al plane (photo credit: Courtesy)
311_el al plane
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The year 2010 broke all the country’s aviation activity records, according to data released Sunday by the Civil Aviation Authority, with a total of 12,160,001 passengers passing through Ben-Gurion Airport on 95,170 international and domestic flights.
This represents an increase of 9.37 percent and 5.54% respectively, over 2009 figures.
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Israeli airlines carried more than five million passengers, 43% of all passengers passing through Ben-Gurion Airport, an increase of 10% over 2009.
El Al carried the most passengers of all airlines, flying 3.8 million passengers, nearly a third of all passengers who flew into and out of Israel. The foreign airline that carried the most passengers was Lufthansa, with 450,000, followed by Continental Airlines with 366,000 and Delta with 337,000.
Easy Jet, US Airways and Aegean registered the highest growth among international airlines.
The main destination for takeoffs and landings was Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, with 721,000 passengers, followed by JFK in New York, with 626,000 and Newark in New Jersey with 536,000.
The United States was the country that provided the most traffic into and out of Israel with a total of 1,554,000 passengers (10.6% more than in 2009), followed by Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Russia.
The countries that featured the highest growth in aviation activity with Israel were Malta, Greece, Russia and Ukraine. Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro and Nigeria all experienced double- digit drops in the percentage of travel between the countries.
August was the busiest month at Ben-Gurion, with 1.5 million international passengers passing through on 9,677 flights. February was the weakest month for aviation activity, with 625,000 passengers on 5,300 flights.
October was the busiest month for domestic travel, with 71,766 passengers, and February was the weakest with only 30,809.
Eilat was by far the most popular destination for domestic flights, with 650,881 passengers, making up 96.5% of all domestic travel. The year saw a 52% increase in passengers flying to Eilat over 2009.
The year also saw a boost in cargo transport through Ben-Gurion with a total of 302,903 tons, up 10.4% over 2009.